iPad Price Starts at $499 3G No Contract AT&T at $29.99 per Month

The iPad pricing starts at $499 for 16GB up to $829 for a model that does 3G. Non-3G will be shipping in 60 days. Another 30 days later the 3G models will be available. Speaking of 3g, only one carrier and that is AT&T. There is a no contract plan that gives you two options. $14.99 a month for 250mb or $29.99 for unlimited. (I’m guessing that is the current definition of unlimited which means 5GB).

it’s something nice, but nothing useful. It won’t be able to replace a Kindle or any other eReader because of the poor display, especially outdoors it will be useless. I don’t expect that it contains a bright backlight or a good AR coating, both would be too expensive and drain the battery too fast. This is also the next problem. It only has a 25Whr battery, come on, this will be empty in a few hours on max brightness. May Fujitsu T2010 will last much longer and be better outdoors.
And then the price. Well, it’s just too expensive for being something between everything.
Honestly, it’s a more advanced Crunchpad, and that’s why it’s too expensive, my opinion.

Kindle on steriods, a Tablet for selling iApps from iStore, “25 million credit cards” that’s they cash cow statement ,smoke and mirrors – looks like it’s back to looking at a Fujitsu option or maybe HP (if they give more details soon on release etc..)

The T4310 of Fujitsu is more expensive but is a Notebook convertible with touch screen. Full functionality plus add 3G card.

iPad for $500 is a iTouch with large screen, plus a few games. Pure apple technology – not sure a great idea…

Frank has a point that the iPad looks nicer than a Kindle, but may be less practical in many circumstances. But it is certainly a more open environment than a Kindle, which is not saying much.

I keep thinking back to the best point about mobility that was made to me by many colleagues. I took a Motion M1300 slate to a medical meeting, and the near universal reaction was that it seemed great, but if it couldn’t be carried in a jacket pocket it was not more attractive than a standard laptop. I passed on that insight to folks at Motion, who thanked me for the feedback, and 9 months later sent me a “we did it” email saying they’d just announced the LS800.

I continue to think that the LS800 has the use case for the 3rd category better than Apple does. My view of the 3rd category is that people will not own all three devices. If people continue to want a real computer, and continue to want a phone, why have a third device to sync? If you have to carry it around, why not get a laptop? For the 3rd category I’d most prefer a jacket-size device that docks and makes it unnecessary to have a desktop or laptop computer.

There is certainly an opening here for HP to do what Motion should have done – update the LS800 and go mass-market.

So AT&T is reviving the “unlimited” data Pay As You Go data plan they used to have, but at a higher price. The metered plan is a lot cheaper than what they have currently (current PAYG data, $19.99 for 100MB).